Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Soyer.
A case of aortic false aneurysm after blunt trauma of the abdomen is presented. Unlike traumatic lesions of the thoracic aorta this condition seems to be extremely rare. To our knowledge, our case is the nineteenth one reported in the literature successfully repaired by surgery.
Spontaneous incomplete non traumatic rupture of the ascending aorta is rare but life-threatening; it may well remain unnoticed until emergency surgery becomes necessary. Its possibility should be considered in all patients presenting signs of tamponade, chest pain or aortic regurgitation, and it must be diagnosed by appropriate procedures.
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From 1974 to 1984, 46 patients underwent emergency surgery for acute native valve endocarditis. Urgent valve replacement was necessary because of rapid hemodynamic deterioration in 34 (73%), uncontrolled sepsis plus heart failure in 9 (19%), and life-threatening emboli in 3 (7%) patients. At the time of surgery 23 patients (50%) were in NYHA functional class IV, 20 in Class III, and 3 in class II. Streptococcus was the most common organism encountered, followed by staphylococcus. Thirty-four cases presented severe aortic regurgitation, 3 mitral incompetence, 8 mitral plus aortic insufficiency, and one aortic plus tricuspid insufficiency. Operative mortality rate was 17% (8/46). Most deaths were due to preoperative multiple system deterioration, especially in cases with lesions of both the aortic and mitral valves, and were unrelated to the duration of preoperative antibiotic therapy. The postoperative observation period of long-term survival is from 6 to 102 months (= 44 months). There were 7 late deaths. The actuarial survival, including operative mortality, is 67%. Twenty-two patients are now in NYHA class II, 6 in class III. The duration of postoperative antibiotic treatment (6 weeks in our series) seems to be important for the prevention of reinfection, early surgery is of great benefit; our 31 survivors showed an excellent clinical improvement.
The cases of 151 patients with diffuse, severe, triple coronary vessel disease excluding any possibility of aortocoronary bypass surgery with a Ross and Friesinger index of over 10/15 were analysed for survival by direct methods up to 5 years and by actuarial methods up to 8 years. The global mortality rate was 36% at 5 years and 53% at 8 years. Excluding 10 non-cardiac deaths, the annual mortality rate was 7%. When the 9 cases of left main stem disease, responsible for 6 deaths in 5 years (annual mortality of 13%) were excluded, the annual mortality of the remaining 132 cases was 6% per year. The actual degree of arterial stenosis did not significantly affect the outcome in these patients selected by the severity of their coronary lesions. Mortality was significantly higher when there was a history of angina of over 3 years duration. All clinical, radiological and electrocardiographic parameters indicating myocardial dysfunction (cardiac failure, radiological cardiomegaly, intraventricular conduction defects, left ventricular hypertrophy) had a decisive influence on mortality. A decreased ejection fraction was a poor prognosis factor associated with a 2.5% increase in the annual mortality rate for each 10% decrease of ejection fraction under 50%. Although no differences were found irrespective of whether coronary angiography was performed in an acute context (during a preinfarction syndrome), most of the survival graphs showed a clearcut increase in the downward slope during the first 6 months, indicating a mortality rate four to eight times higher than during later periods.
This study was based on the analysis of 41 cases of infectious endocarditis of native valves operated during the acute phase. Patients with bacteriological cures, prosthetic valve endocarditis and endocarditis on congenital non-valvular lesions were excluded. There were 32 men and 9 women with an average age of 49 years. The valve lesions were aortic incompetence, mitral incompetence, mitro-aortic disease and mitro-tricuspid disease. Fourteen patients had preexisting valvular disease (rhumatic in 12 and congenital in 2 cases). These patients were in an advanced clinical state at the time of operation: 23 Class IV, 16 Class III and 2 Class II operated for systemic embolism. The surgical indications were severe cardiac failure in 30 cases, systemic embolism in 2 cases and persistance of septicaemia with worsening cardiac function in 9 cases. The causal organism was isolated from blood cultures in 34 cases (83%) and from the excised valve in 13 cases. The early postoperative mortality during the first month was 5 patients (3 cases of aortic incompetence associated with mitral incompetence and 2 cases of aortic incompetence alone). Death was caused in most cases by irreversible cardiac failure related to the advanced preoperative cardiac failure. All the other patients were followed up for 1 to 102 months (average 44 months). There were 7 late postoperative deaths. The mortality rate was 3.4% per patient year including patients undergoing chronic haemodialysis. The actuarial survival was 79% at 78 months excluding the operative mortality.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
We report a case of spontaneous incomplete rupture of the first segment of the ascending aorta presenting as aortic incompetence and acute tamponade confirmed by preoperative angiography in a 57 year old hypertensive woman. This patient underwent emergency conservative surgery with good results at 8 months' follow-up. This rare pathology occurs in the same terrain as dissection of the aorta. The diagnosis should be suspected not only when chest pain and/or aortic incompetence are associated or not with acute tamponade, contrasting with a normal electrocardiogram, but also in atypical presentations which necessitate angiography in multiple incidences in order not to miss the diagnostic signs which are often invisible in the standard projections. When there are no complications, this condition may pass undiagnosed. However, in most cases, it leads to acute tamponade due to intrapericardial rupture or to an aortic aneurysm or aortic incompetence. The latter complications are usually associated with severe regurgitation requiring surgical correction, which in some cases may be conservative.
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Twenty-two patients underwent aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis with a preoperative ejection fraction less than 45%. Three patients died peroperatively and a fourth patient died 18 months later before the haemodynamic control. The other 18 patients were systematically reinvestigated, on average 16 months after surgery. Sixteen had a remarkable functional improvement and a significant increase in ejection fraction at haemodynamic control: 32 +/- 6% to 61 +/- 8%, p less than 0.001. They were surgical successes (Group I). In this group, the 7 patients with the most severe alteration of ventricular function and an average ejection fraction of: 26 +/- 3%, also improved to near normal function with a postoperative fraction of 62 +/- 11%. There was no significant improvement of the ejection fraction in 2 patients, and they were classified with the fatalities as surgical failures (Group II). The clinical, electrocardiographic, radiological, haemodynamic and angiographic data of these two populations were compared to try and identify preoperative indices of prognostic value. Only the angiographic left ventricular myocardial mass index (LVMI) was significantly higher in Group II (253 +/- 98 g/m2) than in Group I (156 +/- 56 g/m2, p less than 0.05). A discriminating analysis showed that the most important parameters to separate the 2 groups of patients were the LVMI and the thickness of the left ventricular wall. The marked increase of the postoperative ejection fraction in 3/4 of our patients confirmed the clinical value of valvular replacement justifying the indication for surgery in patients with severe aortic stenosis in spite of a severe alteration of left ventricular function.
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The authors report and discuss the rare case of a female patient age 55 years, with a atherosclerotic stenosis of the aortic isthmus with hypertension. The lesion was resected using partial veno arterial bypass with a dacron graft, literature on this case is reviewed.
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